It was 30 years ago today ... almost

One of the strangest aspects about When Harry Met Sally is this--I have no idea when and where I first watched the movie!

Wikipedia states that the movie was released in July 21, 1989.  I was in India that summer.  It was my first visit home after coming to the US in 1987.

In the summer of 1988, I went to Venezuela, which profoundly changed me--for the better.  To be in an alien country, where people spoke a language that I could not understand, and yet everything seemingly familiar ... I wanted more of those experiences, which, thankfully, I have been able to have over the years.

By the time I went home in 1989, I had changed a lot.  I wonder if it was after that trip to India, when I started the PhD program, that I decided to grow a beard.

Struggle as I do, I simple cannot recall the first time I watched When Harry Met Sally.  All I know is that I have watched it a gazillion times.  Every single time, the movie is charming, clever, funny, and absolutely human.  Every single time.

I like movies like that, which help me understand what makes us think and do the way we do.  They rarely make those kinds of movies anymore.  It is almost as if most people do not want to understand others.

When Harry Met Sally was all about conversations.  The guys talking, even when doing the wave at the ballgame. The gals talking over food. Harry and Sally talking.  Harry and Sally and Jess and Marie talking.  It is a lot of talking, and every word there is a gem!

Whether it is biological or cultural, or a combination of both, men and women are different.  When Harry Met Sally doesn't merely tap into the differences for cheap laughs.  Instead, Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner plumb those differences for a brilliantly funny and insightful commentary on who we are.  I wish they had also included in the movie the line that Rob Reiner says in his conversation with Nora Ephron, as they recall how they made the movie: "women fake orgasms; men fake listening" ;)

Over the years, I have come to not only acknowledge the differences between men and women, but also appreciate the differences.  Differences makes life interesting, exciting.  It will be a dull and boring world otherwise.

I wonder what a contemporary equivalent might be of When Harry Met Sally.